Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.
Frankies Trade
O
(A-hay O! To me O!)
“Now where did Frankie learn his trade?
For he ran me down with a three-reef mains’le.”
(All round the Horn!)
You’d better ask the cold North Sea,
For he ran me down under all plain canvas.”
(All round the Horn!)
For he came to me when he began—
Frankie Drake in an open coaster.
(All round the Sands!)
So you never shall startle Frankie more,
Without capsizing Earth and her waters.
(All round the Sands!)
I made him pull and I made him haul—
And stand his trick with the common sailors.
(All round the Sands!)
And kicked him home with his road to find
By what he could see in a three-day snow-storm.
(All round the Sands!)
’Twixt Mardyk Fort and Dunkirk lights
On a five-knot tide with the forts a-firing.
(All round the Sands!)
I showed him the length of the Spaniard’s foot—
And I reckon he clapped the boot on it later.
(All round the Sands!)
That’s worse than he was used to take
Nigh every week in the way of his business;
(All round the Sands!)
Which he hasn’t met in time gone by,
Not once or twice, but ten times over;
(All round the Sands!)
(A-hay O! To me O!)
I’ll give you Bruges and Niewport too,
And the ten tall churches that stand between ’em!”
Storm along my gallant Captains!
(All round the Horn!)